Back to what passes for normal around here

Congratulations Monet, Brian and Dylan!  We are very happy for you as well as for your families.  It was great to see everyone.  Thanks so much to Pat and Steve for being such good hosts for any number of last minute mostly unannounced gatherings around their pool.  I'm so glad that Jake and Lindsay could join us so that the out of towners could meet Joey.  Special kudos to the management of the Hotel Hartman for making it look so easy to host 8 extra people and get 3 young ladies and an unspecified number of "mature" ladies spiffed up and into the cars on time!  It was a weekend for the record books.

Despite record breaking heat, I think Kathleen and Nick had a pretty good time here in the Greater Binghamton area.  Nick helped James get the Mustang purring very nicely.  We took a ride to the Finger Lakes to visit some wineries (did you know some of them are NOT air conditioned?).  We spent a great day on the road visiting some local covered bridges in lovely rural Delaware County.  We were able to show Nick "the scene of the crime" in Walton where we were married.  Nick remembered his way to his uncle's property in South Kortright, a portion of which has since become The BiblioBarn for rare and used books!  A very cool find.  And it's for sale:  only somewhere in the vicinity of $325000 which includes this:

It was a great day, a great (hot) week and a wonderful wedding weekend!  Thank you all!

The Good Ole Summertime

A little treat to enjoy as the big wedding weekend approaches:

A classic

Linda and Pat (?)

Little sisters torturing big sister is my guess.

Hot in Harpursville

Who knew?  James was doing some cleaning (no, that's not the "who knew" part) and found this picture of himself and Betty White!

He's standing there with Betty White and some Queen of Somthing Or Other and it's this Paul Lavalle that signed his autograph.  Apparently Paul Lavalle was one of America's best known bandmasters and conductors (who knew?) 

At the time, Betty White was better known as Sue Ann Nivens from the Mary Tyler Moore Show.  You've got to admire that posture:  shoulders back, bosom forward.   We could all take a lesson.

Think how far James and Betty have some since then (not so much with the other 3 I think).  Who knew?

Deja Vu anyone?

What (who) do you see here?

Would it help at all if I mentioned it's from 1965???  James found some old slides when he was cleaning so you all are in for some real treats in the next few days!

I cannot be the only one who sees Brad in this picture.  WOW!

Report from Charlotte NC

Whooooooo me?  NASCAR??

I'm surprised these two owls from the Charlotte NC Raptor center do not have numbers and racing stripes.  We had a very nice visit to North Carolina last week but Charlotte is certainly all NASCAR all the time.  And I don't mean maybe.  We went to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the Speedway and the Hendrick Auto shop.  It strikes me that your dad would have really enjoyed the auto shop especially.

Our tour guide specialized in NASCAR for tourists and she stated that her goal was to have non-fans hesitate one or two seconds longer before flipping the channel next time NASCAR appeared on TV.  She succeeded.  It was actually very interesting.  

We drove to Charlotte and stopped in Winchester VA to spend the night.  We went to the "Old Town" to have dinner at an old inn that was supposed to have an interesting history.  As we walked the streets of Winchester, James kept saying "this looks so familiar".  He asked the waitress, and yes, indeed Winchester is the site of the Apple Blossom parade (which he remembered very clearly).  

 

I found it interesting that he remembered Apple Blossom but not Winchester.  I recently learned that Civil War battles were named differently by the north and the south:  one named battles by the name of the city or area (Winchester) and the other would name the battle by some feature of the area (Apple Blossom). Hmmm........

See you all very soon!  On Long Island (name).  For the wedding (feature).  Which of us do you think has the weekend named how? 

Welcome to the World Joey!

We'd like to welcome Joey Dalpiaz to the family!  Congratulations Jake, Lindsay and Emily.  This is great news.  We've been away to Charlotte NC (all NASCAR all the time) but received the news by text while we were there.  Again I say, what a wonderful world we live in to have news available to us on the minute.  Can you imagine not knowing until the next letter arrived from overseas?

It's great to have a new Joe in the family.  It's a great tribute to Joey's great grandfather Joe but I'm not forgetting "Grandpa Joe" Manzelli your great grandfather.  While we await some new pictures of the newest Joey, allow me to share one of Grandpa Joe (Giuseppe)

I'm sure you've seen this before.  Grandpa Joe is to the far left with the magnificent mustache.

We've been particularly blessed in the past week to also welcome to the world twins of my cousin Cathy in Gloucester Massachusetts.  One boy and one girl Calvin and Claire were also born within the last week.  Babies everywhere!  Can't wait to meet them all.

Happy Father's Day 2011

I just loved that Jean posted a picture of herself and her Dad on her wedding day for her Facebook profile picture to celebrate Father's Day.  So I went in search of something similar to post here and this is what I found:

I like this because everyone looks happy and relaxed.  It's great to see everyone together this way!  So, this picture reminded me of another:

Bobbie is clearly the party girl here!  I have a note on the back of this picture that it was taken just before I lost my shoe (I don't remember that part at all).  This was Kathleen's boat wedding which did not end up with your Dad feeling so well but I did find this picture of your dad and I together, which is what I was seeking to start out with:

I think your Dad is smiling!  And please note party girl Bobbie.  And we have two weddings coming up.......

So, in a roundabout way:  Happy Father's Day to all and special cheers for your dad!